hitting the bars ….

July 4, 2013

… well, it is a holiday, so a little celebration seems appropriate. However, these bars don’t charge a cover, nor give you a hangover (maybe a sugar headache — ask me tomorrow). They do however, give you a very sweet ending to your day off. Whether it be pot-lucks, good-lucks, or in honor of lucky, Lady Liberty herself, all worthy reasons to indulge in Patriotic Pound Cake Bars. Though this holiday is more commonly revered as a day of grilling, libations, and fun-in-the-sun, it truly is a day worthy of a celebration; one where we show our gratitude to this country, those who serve it, and our freedom. That is one special blessing I will surely raise my glass to (though, this isn’t a drink recipe, but we’ll get there). What this is — a simple dessert with ingredients I’m betting you already have in your pantry. In about 30 minutes these are ready. I’ve already ‘sampled’ them 3 times (uh, for quality control), and really am eyeing a 4th, which seems appropriate given the date ….

These pound cake bars are easy because we use a box of yellow cake mix, so we don’t need to measure our flour, baking soda, etc. We’ll team this with cream cheese, eggs and powdered sugar, for a bar denser than a cake, but still light on taste. These bake-up beautifully, and will be easy to travel with that BBQ … though, they’re not so easy to stay away from.

These are so easy and so delicious! They make the perfect base for fresh berries, whipped cream or really fine just by themselves. Moist with a perfect crisp crust!

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 45 mins

What to get:

1 box of yellow cake mix

4 eggs

1 stick of unsalted butter, melted

1 package cream cheese (8 oz), I use Neufchatel, softened

1 tsp vanilla

What to do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 15x11 glass baking dish, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, melted butter and 2 of the eggs (beaten), mixing thoroughly.

Spread thick mixture into the greased 15x11 dish, leveling as best you can to be even.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining 2 eggs (beaten), until thoroughly combined.

Spread the powdered sugar mix over the cake mixture spread in pan, evenly.

Bake for 35 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely, about 25 minutes.

Slice into bars and top with fresh berries.

Notes:

This is a great way to make an easy cake-like dessert,using a boxed cake mix. This can work with a variety of fruit as toppings, or along whipped cream, or ice cream would be great too. Store pan wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

This recipe was inspired by an overabundance of yellow cake mix I hastily purchased (on sale), and haven’t made one cake with since. I had a partial, old recipe from my Mom for making bars with cake mixes, so I thought we’d adapt this with some cream cheese and give them a try. Glad I did, because I will be making these again. They get a patriotic makeover with some red, white and blueberries, but these are just as tasty plain, or with some ice cream (Which I will now be having with the next one!)

We will be paring these sweet treats with some of our other Star-Spangled BBQ dishes from last year (also good ones to make for a party). Oh, and if you are in need of a a festive drink (I am raising my hand here), this is the patriotic libation that will be filling glasses at my house later, cheers!

May the day be filled with good friends, grills, ketchup, fireworks, and some pride knowing that we’re free to do all of this today!

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Welcome to the dinnervine!

Thank you for visiting the dinnervine! In the words of Julia Child, "People who love to eat, are always the best people," and I couldn't agree more. I hope you enjoy these dishes as much as I did making them. Here's to creating new recipes and memories with friends & family, cheers!